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140
By the end of the year 1913, 220 such premises were on the
Register.
THE HOUSING AND TOWN PLANNING ACT, 1909.
During 1913 the houses in Allan, Shakespeare, and Spenser
Roads were inspected under the Act. All the facts were duly entered
in the Special Register kept. No action beyond the abatement
of such nuisances as were discovered was necessary in respect to
these dwellings; that is to say, as no house was considered to be
in a state so dangerous or injurious to health as to be unfit for
human habitation, no representations had to be made to the local
authority with a view to making Closing Orders, the general
character of the defects found to exist being of a nature remediable
under notices for the abatement of nuisances. No new houses
were erected in the Borough during 1913.
A large number of houses built for one family are now occupied
by three, or often four, families of the poorer class. In
many cases these separate homes contain no proper scullery, and
there is but one copper for the use of all of them. These circumstances,
by handicapping cleanliness, often lead to the dirtiness
of person, clothing and rooms; and in face of a marked increase
in the "tenementation" of houses in the Southern Division of
Stoke Newington, the provision of Public Washhouses will, it
is hoped, do something to prevent the lowering of the sanitary
standard of living which is so often involved in these adverse circumstances.
The proper washing and drying of body clothing,
bedding and household linen is always difficult in these circumstances,
and in many cases it is impossible. The one copper
in the basement or on the ground floor has to be approached
through someone else's kitchen or scullery; there are few, if any,
conveniences in the shape of mangles, washing-board, etc., and
the drying has to be done in the small room which must often
serve as a living room, and which is crowded at times throughout
the day. The circumstance that provision is made at their doors, by
the local authority, of every convenience and contrivance to
lighten and shorten labour in washing and to obtain rapid drying,
and this at the price of 1½d. an hour, should be much appreciated,